cduckworth Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 (edited) Many moons ago I kind of started on this kit, I got a far as gluing the bulkheads to the floor, dry fitting the parts and tried to figure out how to position the gunner's tunnel where it made sense - gave up on that idea and quietly put it back in the box and placed a few more models on top of it hoping I'd forget about it and my kids could dispose of it after I was long gone. Well, the bug has bit to finish up those models that were never finished. I struggled with the fuselage trying to get the length of it not to look like a worm, as this one had a tendency to want to curve sideways. So after fighting this issue for 10-12 minutes I decided to glue it up as true as I could sighting down the spine. I'll then then add the extra bracing details in the interior. The tunnel was both glued with Tamiya glue and acc'd in place and then liberal amounts of Tamiya putty was used to blend it into the side walls and bottom of the fuselage. I don't remember building a kit with this much putty being used in the first hour nor having to use every clamp I have available and wishing I had more. Anyway we are off and running. Edited March 2, 2017 by cduckworth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 That doesn't look pretty, but I'm sure you can rescue it and give it a decent finish! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 You shame me Sir! I must take another look at my half finished build. Martian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 12, 2017 Author Share Posted February 12, 2017 I was following yours closely so if I got you back into it all the better. 8^) I can see lots of drilling and brass pins in our future with these builds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 13, 2017 Author Share Posted February 13, 2017 (edited) On 2/12/2017 at 3:40 PM, Martian Hale said: You shame me Sir! I must take another look at my half finished build. Martian Martain I'm looking at the Windsock Datefile Special on the Gotha series and the color profile (J) on page 43 of Gotha 670/16 shows the fuselage in blue with the wings covered in the five color day printed fabric. The (very) few built up models I've been on the web of this kit has the wings finished in a solid blue as the kit shows. The photo referenced is on page 20 and its hard to tell but I'm going with Ray Rimell's and Dr. Merrill's assessment since they had access to the photograph and digging out my lozenge decal sheets. Will certainly make this a more interesting finish. Charlie Edited February 13, 2017 by cduckworth added wording Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 13, 2017 Author Share Posted February 13, 2017 (edited) Today I spent considerable time in the body shop (aka kitchen sink) adding putty, wet sanding, putty and wet sanding. I didn't realize how big of a model this will be as you can see by it resting on my work bench. I drilled out all the holes for the various struts. This is going to take a few sheets of lozenge decal sheets. Edited February 14, 2017 by cduckworth Spelling 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 14, 2017 Author Share Posted February 14, 2017 (edited) Found this wonderful build by von Andreas Martin http://www.modellversium.de/galerie/23-flugzeuge-ww1/8844-gotha-gv-.html and translated his article to English. He ran into a couple of issues with the Hippo model. Here's his comments: "... the exhaust systems of the engines stand in the way of the correct attachment of the struts to the upper support surface. If you look at the model from the front, the torso braces that are not set in the right angle fall apart, I have noticed this error quite late and it was not possible to make a correction. the pick-up holes of the struts in the upper half of the wings have been incorrectly set." So armed with his observations I stared at the few photos of a G.V in the Datafile and decided 1) the engine sat to low and added a piece of Evergreen HO 4"x 4" to raise it up to the proper height and 2) filed the cowling sides and exhaust fins so the engine stand struts would have a chance of of lining up per the prototype. The other thing I tackled was one of the sides bowed in a little after I glued it to the walls of the tunnel. So I added a patch of Evergreen .010 plastic and Tamiya putty and am slowly wet sanding it to eliminate the bow. Edited February 14, 2017 by cduckworth added photos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krow113 Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 Tough start. I'll watch as I'm on the WNW Gotha right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 Modelling to sort the men from the boys! This is going to be very impressive, having seen the lovely quality of your other builds, Cheers John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 14, 2017 Author Share Posted February 14, 2017 John Thanks for the words of encouragement; once I get by the fuselage correction and get the lower wings pinned I'll feel like I'm making headway. I photocopied the G.V 1/48 plans last night so I have some good references. The German article was helpful in pointing out some early mistakes I would have missed. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 14, 2017 Author Share Posted February 14, 2017 2 hours ago, krow113 said: Tough start. I'll watch as I'm on the WNW Gotha right now. If you are building the WNW Gotha I don't think you'll get much out of this build other than being happy you bought a much better designed and engineered kit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krow113 Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 LOL!! No worries during my work all things Gotha interest me. Hit this site , ask about your kit , the guys there will def help you with it. http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 14, 2017 Author Share Posted February 14, 2017 39 minutes ago, krow113 said: LOL!! No worries during my work all things Gotha interest me. Hit this site , ask about your kit , the guys there will def help you with it. http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php Thanks for reminding me of the Aerodrome and I'm a member. Here's what I read Per the Gotha! Datafile, the plywood fuselage and vertical tail surfaces would be painted. The wings were also painted until sometime late in the GV series, when printed fabric was used. "Gotha finally introduced printed night lozenge fabric within their G.V series. Surviving fabric from G. 979/16 in the Imperial War Museum is of this type." .................... the few day GV finished as day bombers reportedly used 5 color day loz (which I expect would be printed fabric, as there would be little reason to spend the time to paint the pattern if it was available) So I'm going with the five color printed day loz on the wings and horizontal stabilizer and paint the fuselage and rudder light blue. Engine cowlings a gray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 If you need decent lozenge I would highly recommend Aviattic. I think they do night lozenge too. It would be a shame to go to all this trouble and then have the lozenge colours wrong.... ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 15, 2017 Author Share Posted February 15, 2017 I know this doesn't look like two days of effort but lots of putty, sanding, Tamiya primer, then repeated several times. Also saw that the locations for the bottom holes on the engine cowlings were spaced incorrectly comparing them to the holes on the wings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) No I haven't dropped off the planet; just out of town with grand daughter's birthday. The interior framing on the AZ Model is pretty sparse (nice way of saying there is none) so I used some Evergreen HO 2" x 4" and 2" x 2" strips to add some framing. Am using the Datafile, the Gotha build book and the Wingnuts web site Gotha instructions manual to get the cockpit details figured out. Mixed up some Vallejo tan and brown for the interior color and added a little Tamiya Clear Yellow to give it a yellow hue. I'll close the gap in the front today where the two 2" x 2" didn't come together. Also ordered Aviattic's five color daylight decal sheets to cover the wings and horizontal stabilizer. Edited February 25, 2017 by cduckworth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandy Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 Starting to look like a Gotha now, much improved over what you started with! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 Thanks for the encouragement; I used 5 minute epoxy and brass wire pins this morning to attach the right lower wing and will get the other one done this afternoon after the glue sets up. Am glad I copied the 1/48 general arrangement drawings from the DF as lining up these large wings is 'the' critical step in construction. I don't recall having this much trouble with the Aurora Gotha when I was a kid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 The span of the wings was too large for the Datafile GA drawings so to ensure to bottom wings were inlign with the top wing I ran a pencil along the leading edge and used this as a point of reference in gluing the bottom wings. Not surprising the bottom wings, if butted up against the smaller wing supports, would have had the wrong angles. Once I felt the bottom wings matched I used gap filling acc to hold them in place. I just got the plywood bi-plane jig this week and will have a little learning curve on getting it right to hold the wings in place for gluing the struts. No hurry as there's lots of details to add in the gunners and pilots areas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_t Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 OK I'm in - late again, but at least I found this before it got on to the second page! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) I honestly don't know how one would built this kit without the Datafile GA drawings near your work bench. All of the strut placement holes in the upper wing had to be redrilled (setting the rear one back) so they were in the same distance as the holes in the lower wing. I matched the spacing in the DF and the lower wing's matched the GA. The location holes for the cabane struts from the fuselage were missing and again the GA drawing helped with their locations. Wings are puttied and glue set up so waiting for the daylight loz to land in my mailbox. Back to researching and detailing the cockpits and other crew positions. The rear hole is the correct location. Edited February 25, 2017 by cduckworth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clive_t Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 Looking good. Can I ask, please, what size drill are you using for these new holes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 I'm using the Wingnuts Gotha builds on the web and instructions to help add some missing details to the AZ Models interior. Here's three oxygen bottles I made today; while not exact (I used cut off cylinders from a plastic rotary engine for the base) its at least fills a void. Still need to paint the tube and bags. 12 hours ago, clive_t said: Looking good. Can I ask, please, what size drill are you using for these new holes? #58 I believe but you might go smaller. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cduckworth Posted February 28, 2017 Author Share Posted February 28, 2017 Ran into another issue where the location holes are in the wrong spot. Was attaching the horizontal stabilizers this evening and they were not flush with the top of the fuselage. Looked over the few photos in the Datafile of the tail section and the model was wrong. I ended up re drilling the holes slightly higher and they are now both even with the top edge. To quote Charlie Brown. "Good Grief".... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krow113 Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 Some kits are that way! You'll be very happy when you are finished working your way through the issues , and no doubt it will be one of your best models. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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